Kindergarten Question

Yes, Keep in mind that Kindergarten is more than academics. As a director of a preschool program for the past 25 years, I've seen this a lot. Kindergarten is social emotional development as well. Often children who are advanced cogitively, stuggle in the social development. Ask his teacher how he does with things like sharing, waiting, taking turns, respect for others and property, problem solving and independence. These can develop into other problems down the road if not addressed now. It is great to have a bright child, but the long term goal is a well rounded child too. Also if you remove him from the program, are you prepared to carry on as his teacher and continue his love for learning?

I am a teacher for older children. I would say leave him in everyday program. Even though he may know some of the information that will be presented, I'm sure that not everything they will be learning is provided in that outline for the next nine weeks. Also, an essential part of of learning is reviewing and re-reviewing, so some review will be great for him.

Where would you move him if he wasn't in the everyday program? I teach kindergarten and while we do have academic skills we teach (obviously!), we also have social and emotional "goals" of our program. So, even if your son has mastered the academic aspects of his class, there may be other things he is needing to work on. This late in the year, it may do more harm than good to move your son somewhere else. Transitions can be hard, even for easy-going kids. Talk to your son's teacher about your concerns. I bet she can find ways to challenge him in the classroom. Good luck!

Just wanted to disagree with Shannon S.---full day is still too long for some 5 year olds and half day should always be an option. Kids have the rest of their lives to go to school all day and good half day teacher is able to get done what needs to get done in only a morning or afternoon. People are in a hurry for their kids to grow up--let them be kids for a little while longer!

ABSOLUTELY keep him in the everyday program, hopefully it is a full day program as well for both academic and social reasons. My daughter is also in kindergarten and unfortunately the district I live in only offers a 2 1/2 day program. It's a real shame! I work as a school psychologist in a district that offers the full day everyday program. I do not know how familiar you are with the State of Ohio's curriculum, but I believe in order for student's to appropriately and successfully access and learn the curriculum, kindergarten students need to be in a full day everyday program. The state is obviously addressing those same concerns/issues because as of next school year every public school district in the state will be required to have a full day everyday program, unless granted a wavier through the state. The benchmark that a student is expected to reach each trimester or quarter can be very difficult to achieve in a half day program. I find myself doing more than I would probably have to at home if my daughter was in a full day program. I also have pushed my daughter, academically, above and beyond that of her peers in school. I figure it never hurts to have her ahead of the game. She is efficiently reading about 130 sight words, can read books with familiar and unfamiliar words by sounding them out, and has begun learning her addition math facts. This is among other concepts I teach or pre-teach at home. My suggestion is not to take what he says lightly. Listen to what he says and talk to his teacher, together the two of you should be able to come up with some ideas so he does not feel overloaded and maybe some new science type activities can be implemented. The teacher might appreciate your feedback because quite possibly other students are feeling the same way and the teacher knows this but does not know exactly what is wrong. Good Luck!!!

I agree with the others, keep him in. However, you might look into some after school activities in science or other areas that he is interested in.